[KellyAdmirer]

I'm extremely pleased that the crew was saved, but $2 million complete writeoffs every time some wacko out there puts a pipe bomb or whatever in the street adds up. I wonder why they can't either make them cheaper or make them more robust.

[gatorbait]

I'm extremely pleased that the crew was saved, but $2 million complete writeoffs every time some wacko out there puts a pipe bomb or whatever in the street adds up. I wonder why they can't either make them cheaper or make them more robust.

Two million bucks is pocket change if the crew is saved. Warfare cannot be done on the cheap, not then, not now, not ever.

[archy]

I'm extremely pleased that the crew was saved, but $2 million complete writeoffs every time some wacko out there puts a pipe bomb or whatever in the street adds up. I wonder why they can't either make them cheaper or make them more robust.

The same 12 dollar Russian TM-46 or TM-57 or AmericanM15 or M19 20-pound antitank mine that can cripple an Abrams tank is going to do a lot more than a minimalist terrorist's pipe bomb. And if command detonated by wire or radio, especially if two mines [20 pounds each, one in either hand] are stacked atop each other, the blast is even more likely to kill the 2-million dollar vehicle, if not the crew. And if the external fuel tanks rupture, particularly while the crew is under fire, someone's really in trouble.

For less than $25, somebody can kill a 2 million dollar vehicle. And eventually, they'll learn to add a couple of Claymore antipersonnel mines for when the crews bail out. I hear the going bonus rate for so killing a vehicle load of Americans is around a thousand bucks.

Maybe someday we'll learn to pay a decent bounty for the terrorist sappers....

-archy-/-

[185JHP]

Ike was right about the "military-indusrial coplex." They need close scrutiny, lest their greed and selfishness result in ripoffs - like fighter planes that have less range, can't fly as fast, and can't carry as much ordnance as the planes they replace.
"Lots of shady characters, lots of dirty deals. Payoffs, ripoffs, and things nobody saw." Dreck like the Crusader - thankfully killed - and the Osprey - still wasting $$$.